“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence”
Tennessee Williams
STATEMENT
In these wall pieces I use transfer techniques to layer images and patterns in multiple firings. Many of them are based on a landscape,
the photographs often taken without aiming or composing the image. I prefer random effects and unplanned elements to pictures of
specific things or places.
I purposely make distressed slab constructions with rough edges and areas that will crack, I aim to adapt to rather than impose my will
at each stage of the process. It is an ongoing challenge to respond openly to each step.
In contrast to the rough-edged forms, the platter defines a space, giving it a boundary.
Growing up with two cultures, I experienced differing perspectives everywhere. My ceramic work allows me to pull these pieces together.
Working in layers I can make different times and places exist together, composing my stories.
MATERIA EX LOCO
My scientific curiosity in the natural world has become an integral part of my work and process. Collecting clay and rocks from places I hike
and camp, I test them at different temperatures to see how they respond. Depending on the results, I use them in my pieces as a physical
part of an environment: Physical mementos of places I love.
A horizon line is essential in these pieces, to ground the rocks and give the illusion of depth. I add images to enhance this effect of space.
The Latin term Materia Ex Loco refers to material from a place that captures my feeling about the earth materials that I use.
CERAMIC PROCESS
Starting with a laser print I transfer the image to the leather hard clay using a litho-transfer method.
To add color and pattern I apply underglaze transfers and stencils underneath or on top of the litho-transfer.
Wedging the finer materials into the clay, I press rocks, gravel, glass and other materials into the clay when the piece has taken its form.
Once bisque fired, I add oxide washes and glaze.
After the glaze firing, I apply decals, overglazes, commercial decals or lusters in descending temperature firings.
The newer pieces with fired rocks are reinforced with epoxy as they are not usual ceramic materials.